Current Research Journal of Social Sciences 3(5): 389-398, 2011
ISSN: 2041-3246
© Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2011
Submitted: April 29, 2011
Accepted: August 16, 2011
Published: September 25, 2011
Human Capital Development Practices in Malaysian Public Universities
Aziah Ismail and Abdul Ghani Kanesan Abdullah
School of Educational Studie, Universiti Sains, Malaysia
Abstract: The aim of this study was to identify the differences of human capital development aspects that have
been emphasized in academic programmes offered by Malaysian Public Universities in order to produce high
quality human capital. The data was obtained using questionnaires from 16 Malaysian public universities
(namely, 3 Research Universities, 3 Comprehensive Universities, and 10 Focused Universities) in 2009. A set
of questionnaire consisting of 110 items using the five likert scales were answered by 1176 respondents (deans,
deputy deans, heads of department/ coordinators/ programme coordinators/ project managers and lecturers).
The MANOVA analysis revealed that there were significant differences among the universities and
programmes of study while carrying out the aspects of the human capital development. In fact, the findings also
shows pattern of priority that had been emphasized by the Malaysian Public Universities in implementing the
aspects of human capital development through their academic programmes. As a conclusion, the different roles
and emphasis in producing human capitals with various skills and knowledge has created diversity in the human
capital development profile among the public universities in Malaysia and in the programmes of study that they
offered. This variety proved that every university and programme plays a distinct role in the process of human
capital development to fulfill the needs of a nation’s development.
Key words: Academic programmes, human capital development objectives, Malaysian Public Universities
and progressive. Education is one of the main medium in
the effort of developing human capital that has a strong
identity, amiable personalities, prominent knowledgeable
and highly skilled in meeting the needs of Malaysia to be
a developed country by 2020. Besides, the desired human
capital should also be capable of engaging in critical and
creative thinking, competent in problem solving, capable
in creating new opportunities and possess perseverance as
well as capable in facing the ever changing global
environment.
Rahmah (1996) suggested that human capital
development through education is a process to increase a
nation’s human capital stock. Moreover, human resource
development is crucial as humans are often referred to as
the ultimate capital that propels economic growth. In fact,
it was affirmed by many parties that the main obstruction
to the administration of the development projects and
dynamic economic progression activities is the lack of
manpower, besides under-utilized technology.
The ultimate role of a university is to be an
organization that supplies human capital for the nation’s
economic development (Altbach, 1991; Chew and Lee,
1995; Murad, 1971), especially in the economical
transitions from product-based to knowledge-based
economy (Anuar-Zaini, 2000). The economists view
universities as a long-term investment which is very
profitable especially in supplying trained manpower in
various areas (Chew and Lee, 1995; Eddy, 1972).
INTRODUCTION
The development of higher education has a close
attachment besides a mutual character with the nation’s
development requirements. From another perspective,
universities play a crucial role in contributing towards
fulfilling the needs in the development process in a
holistic manner which includes the economical, political,
social and technological development (Altbach, 1991;
Fagerlind and Saha, 1989; Hussien, 1993; Saha, 1991). In
fact, in realizing the nation’s development goals,
universities have to act as organizations that create a
society that is analytic, informative and skillful, enhances
dexterities and professionalism through trainings
provided, revise teaching methods, increases the
opportunities to access into higher education, promotes
the nation as a center of academic excellence, while
taking the lead in creating new fields of knowledge
through research activities (Altbach, 1991; Azis, 2001;
Yorke, 1999).
The development of higher education in Malaysia and
its roles in human capital development: The human
capital development is a holistic process that includes
knowledge and skills attainment or intellectual properties
that concentrates on entrepreneurship abilities, science
and technology knowledge besides possessing positive
character, values, and ethics as well as being competitive
Corresponding Author: Aziah Ismail, School of Educational Studies Universiti Sains, Malaysia
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Trained manpower is a prominent and crucial asset in
the efforts of propelling a nation’s development (Altbach,
1991; Johari, 2000; Sufean, 2002). This is because a
nation’s progression and abundance is not measured by
the quantity of natural resources but the quality of creative
human resources that smoothing the society development
efforts in various areas of life (Sufean, 2002). The
contribution of universities in training and equipping
human resources is not only limited to produce the experts
to generate the economic field development but is also
inclusive of instilling values as required by the nation
(Fagerlind and Saha, 1989).
Robiah (1980) in a research examining the roles of
universities in nation development revealed that
government officers, university administrators and
lecturers agreed that activities conducted in Malaysian
public universities support the national development
goals. Moreover Thong (1995) has identified the public
universities’ model in Malaysia as a utilitarian model
which was established on the “ivory tower” concept, and
serves to bring a balance in the efforts of fulfilling a
nation’s needs besides preparing vocational training, yet
prioritizing intellectual excellence in every task they
carried out. Therefore, all public universities in Malaysia
strive in various ways to achieve this aim.
Since higher education is highly required as an
important mechanism in realizing a nation’s development,
the government has taken the necessary actions by
legislating various general public policies especially
higher education policies (Hussien, 2001; Kirby-Harris,
2003). The top-down approach administered by the
government is aimed to ensure an existence of
parallelisms between the development of higher education
and its contributions towards nation development (KirbyHarris, 2003).
In Malaysia, the Ministry of Higher Education is
given the mandate as the coordinator of higher education
activities including offering new academic programmes.
Apart from that, the new courses in professional fields
proposed by the universities also require acknowledgment
and recognition from external professional bodies. These
measures are taken to ensure the quality of academic
programmes offered by the universities besides to attain
the standardized level required in the current situations
(Yorke, 1999). This is in line with the world’s universal
scenario that changes the pattern and method of pursuing
a country’s wealth and riches. In other words, the new
global economic power is now based on creativity,
authenticity and imagination from scholars and
technopreneurs. Therefore, optimizing innovation and
ideas, creativity, eminence and knowledge exploration by
the community are the main factors in determining the
nation’s success and well-being (Ministry of Higher
Education, 2007).
In order to develop human capital with these
characteristics, the comprehensive improvisation of
delivery methods, training and life-long learning are
implemented in Malaysian higher learning institutions
(Ministry of Higher Education, 2006). On top of that, the
development of higher employment skills are also
emphasized to ensure that the human capital produced
will be competent in the ever-changing economy and
the globalization era. This goal could be achieved
through the implementation of core human capital
development policies which also aims to ensure the
education and training in the tertiary level fulfills the
employers’ requirements (Ministry of Higher Education,
2006). Hence, the higher education system in Malaysia
needs to ensure that the higher learning institutions (HEIs)
develop their reputation with the ability to attract and
retain the best academics to contribute significantly to the
advancement of research, producing graduates who are
able to master and practice the knowledge they have
learned for the betterment of our community, nation and
the universe as a whole.
In the effort of developing the higher education
system that can fulfill the current society needs, the
Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) had
categorized the Malaysian public universities into 3
groups as listed below:
(a)
C
C
C
C
Research University
Fields of studies are focused on researches
Competitive Intake
High quality lecturers
A ratio of 50:50 between graduates and postgraduates
b) Comprehensive University
C Various fields of studies
C Competitive Intake
C High quality lecturers
C A ratio of 70:30 between graduates and postgraduates
c) Focused University
C Focused fields of studies
C Competitive Intake
C High quality lecturers
C A ratio of 70:30 between graduates and postgraduates
(Ministry of Higher Education, 2007)
These steps were taken in order to increase the
excellence in HEIs in specific fields according to the
capability of institutions in producing high quality human
capital, respectively.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Community is a system composed by a few
interconnecting parts and work in harmony to maintain
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the social equilibrium as a whole (Parsons, 1951). Every
part exerts mutual influences towards another part.
Therefore, every social institution, including the higher
education institutions play specific roles in shaping a
community, for example, chanelling skills, knowledge
and culture of a community to the younger generation in
their own community and also to others. The delivering of
knowledge and skills has therefore encouraged the
progression of roles in the education institution in various
levels with the efforts of fulfilling the global community
development.
Related to this, Structural-Functionalists view
education as contributing to the smooth functioning of
society. Educational systems train the most qualified
individuals for the most socially important positions.
Moreover, education teaches people not only the soft
skills and thinking skills that maximizes their potential,
but also teaches them to be good citizens who get along
well with others. They would not see education as
contributing to inequality (along class, race, gender, etc.
lines) but rather as serving the positive function of the
overall society (Kingsbury and Scanzoni, 1993).
In fact, the community system consists of many other
systems. One of them is the education system, formed
from various parts, that supports and exerts mutual
influence on each other. Every part has their respective
roles in forming the education system in a community.
This role is as desired by the community in order to
develop the economy, politic and social aspects. Hitherto,
the education system is commonly perceived as a crucial
contrivance to produce human capital in developing the
economy. The roles of education institutions, therefore, as
explained by the allocation theory, does not only function
as a socialization agent but also as the selector, the sorter,
and the allocator as well (Meyer, 1978) to human capitals
that are produced for the nation’s development. According
to this theory, education functions as a set of institutional
rules that classify and allocate individuals into certain
hierarchical levels in a community. This allocation is done
according to a few aspects, for example, course duration
and types of studies (i.e., field of study; certificate levels:
diploma, degree etc).
This is also in tandem with the legitimate theory that
views education as a mean established by community that
set an individual's qualifications as a criteria for certain
jobs or career. The qualifications required in fields of
career will predetermine the area of knowledge one must
acquire. For example, an engineer needs at least a degree
in the engineering field besides registering with the
Malaysia Board of Engineers. According to Roemer
(1980), the basic claim of the legitimation theory is that
the schools alter the social structure itself. Education is
thought to expand the sources of cultural authority and in
so doing creates new sets of specialized social position.
Nevertheless, academic qualifications obtained are
determined by the aspect of programme structure and
focus of each education institutions especially the HEIs.
This is because there are differences in these aspects in
every academic programme offered in each HEI.
For Malaysia, the development needs of various
fields in an effort of preparing the nation into the status
of developed country, has encouraged and propelled
public universities to offer various fields of study to
facilitate the needs. Yet, another effort of the Malaysian
MoHE is seen in the clustering of the universities into 3
main clusters with different emphasis, specifically,
research universities, and comprehensive universities and
focused universities. According to the Ministry of Higher
Education (2007), the research universities will give more
attention in the research field, while the focused
universities will be focused on specific fields with regards
to its establishment. While, comprehensive universities
offer a variant of courses and fields of study. The
clustering was implemented with the aim of increasing
and elevating the efficiency and effectiveness of the roles
of public universities in Malaysia with the aim to produce
well versed human capitals with diverse capabilities for
the nation’s development. This is because according to the
Legitimate Theory, the power of efficiency in different
specializations stimulates more functions to be integrated
into the social control, for example, when a social
problem occurs; more counselors and psychiatrists are
required in dealing with human relations. Meanwhile, for
environmental problem, professionals in that area such as
environmental engineers are needed by the society. Thus,
from these phenomena, we could understand that the
trained groups (elites) in particular areas of knowledge are
responsible in performing distinguished undertakings.
Research objectives: The public universities in Malaysia
are categorized into three groups, namely the research
university, comprehensive university and focused
university, where they differ in structure and function in
the process of producing and developing the human
capital. On top of that, public universities, regardless of
their respective cluster, offer different courses with the
purpose of developing human capitals for various areas of
expertise. Every component and diverse fields of study in
university have specific focus that contributes to the
human capital development process via the universities
academic programmes. Therefore, this research aims to
investigate the different aspects of human capital
development that is emphasized in academic programmes
offered by different fields of study in all three categories
of universities aforesaid, in order to produce high quality
human capital for the development of Malaysia
specifically, and globally.
METHODOLOGY
This study was conducted in 2009 and had used the
retrospective policy analysis in obtaining data from 16
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Table 1: Summary of factor loading analysis results with the factors of varimax rotation method.
Factor loading
1
2
3
4
Human capital objectives and aims
Possess continual interest
0.71
Possess a wide area of general knowledge
0.50
Sensitive towards current issues
0.51
Appreciate art, culture and sport
0.51
Skillful in problem solving
0.55
Creative and innovative
0.52
Clinical thinking skills
0.59
Adaptable
0.62
Highly morale
0.59
Show concern and care
0.82
Skillful in communication
0.69
Efficient in relaying information
0.74
Easily amenable
0.73
Socialise well
0.83
Exude professionalism
0.82
Endeavour self improvement
0.83
Possess personal strength
0.82
Aspiring to be leader
0.80
Able to work in a team
0.84
Academic programme’s Curriculum
Provide knowledge in specific fields
Instill humanitarian skills
Relate to needs in the work place
Integrate research skills
Competitive in the market place
Preparing students into careers
Include curriculum of other fields
Teaching and learning activities
Enrich knowledge
0.55
Identify materials
0.57
Interaction with friends
0.56
Working in a group
0.62
Effectivey relaying messages
0.63
Collaborating with external societies
0.57
Proficient in communicating with malay
0.55
Language
Appraisal mechanisms
Public speaking skills
Teamwork
Skills in conducting research
Critical thinking skills
Learning materials
Prepare further reading lists
0.61
Emphasis on problem solving aspects
0.67
Emphasis on critical thinking
0.68
Assignment based
0.60
Emphasis on discovery learning
0.57
Encourage study levels
0.52
Incorporating real life situation
0.67
Teachers resources
Act as mentor
Improve skills continually
Skilled in connecting and integrating techniques
Apply research results
Act as facilitator
Supporting system
Library facilities
0.70
Internet access facilities
0.75
Caunselling services
0.72
Online resources
0.84
Transport facilities
0.54
Photocopy facilities
0.56
Lecture halls
0.51
Up-to-date reference items
0.76
392
5
6
7
0.72
0.52
0.59
0.59
0.55
0.63
0.59
0.66
0.59
0.52
0.51
0.52
0.53
0.63
0.65
0.57
8
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Curr. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 3(5): 389-398, 2011
Table 1: Continued
Factor loading
Programme development
Education laws and policies
Country development needs
Local marketplace needs
Global marketplace needs
Intellectual development needs
Human development needs
Society development needs
Quality of programme
Revise curriculum
Administer tracers study
Conduct market research
Revise every programme
Appraisals conducted by external evaluators
Obtain recognition
Professionals invited as evaluators
Eigen values
% Variance explained
Cumulative %
Table 2: Intecorrelation matrix between scale factors
Factor
a
Mean
Human Capital Objectives (MB)
0.85
4.11
Curriculum (K)
0.83
4.07
Teaching & Learning (PP)
0.84
4.07
Appraisal Mechanism (MP)
0.83
4.13
Learning Materials (BP)
0.81
3.95
Teachers Resources (TP)
0.90
4.15
Supporting System (SS)
0.89
4.07
Development Programme (PG)
0.8
14.2
Quality Of Programme (KP)
0.82
4.21
*: sig. at p<0.05; **: sig. at p<0.01
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0.57
0.65
0.57
0.53
0.50
0.59
0.52
15.2
13.9
13.9
S.P
0.52
0.50
0.56
0.58
0.57
0.57
0.61
40.53
0.64
10.5
9.6
23.5
9.4
8.5
32.0
MB
1.00
K
0.31*
1.00
8.9
8.1
40.1
PP
0.49**
0.39**
1.00
8.7
7.9
48.05
MP
0.41**
0.38
0.46
1.00
BP
0.47**
0.51**
0.46**
0.51**
1.00
5.5
4.9
2.9
TP
0.49**
0.43**
0.42**
0.50**
0.51**
1.00
5.4
4.9
57.8
SS
0.44**
0.42**
0.48**
0.43**
0.48**
0.50**
1.00
5.2
4.7
62.5
PG
0.36**
0.42**
0.38**
0.32*
0.38**
0.51**
0.43**
1.00
0.66
0.61
0.59
0.65
0.69
0.72
0.57
4.4
3.9
66.4
KP
0.29*
0.35**
0.38**
0.33**
0.50**
0.29*
0.39**
0.35**
1.00
Table 3: Samples
Types of universities
Research
Comprehensive
Selected public universities
Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, International Islamic University of Malaysia dan Universiti Malaysia
Sabah
Focused
Universiti Technologi Malaysia, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, UTHM,
UTMM, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Universiti
Sains Islam Malaysia,dan Universiti Malaysia Kelantan
The respondents for this survey consist of deans, deputy deans, heads of department/ coordinators/ programme coordinators/ project managers and
lecturers (Table 4)
Table 4: Respondents distribution
Respondents
Deans
Deputy deans
Project managers
Course coordinators
Lecturers
Tota
Frequency
44
36
13
60
900
1176
data obtained from the respondents (n = 1176) was
analyzed using the factor analysis to confirm the item
loadings into variable (dimensional) factors.
The factor analysis findings shows that KaiserMeyer-Olkin (KMO) value is 0.625 while Bartlett’s Test
of Chi-Square value is 269256.6 (df = 5995; p = 0.001)
and this results supports Coakes and Steed (2003)
suggestion that if the KMO value is $0.60, then factor
analysis method is suitable in a reasonable sample. Next,
the factor analysis by using a factor weight of 0.50
revealed that 9 factors with Eigen value more than 1
appeared. All these 9 factors have contributed as much as
66.4% of the overall variance (Table 1).
To identify the inter-correlation between the 9 factors
of the human capital development scale, the Pearson
correlation analysis was carried out and its findings are
tabulated in Table 2. The main objective is to conduct
inter-correlation among these factors. Besides that, the
Percentage
3.7
3.1
611.5
5.1
81.7
100.0
Malaysian public universities (namely, 3 Research
Universities, 3 Comprehensive Universities, and 10
Focused Universities) through survey research method
using questionnaires. For such reasons, a set of
questionnaire consisting of 110 items using the Likert
scale of five, comprising of two main domains i.e., the
Human Capital Development Objectives and the
Implementation of Human Capital Development Via
Academic Programmes, was developed.
To identify the construct validility, the factor analysis
procedure was used to confirm item loadings. As such, the
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Curr. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 3(5): 389-398, 2011
Table 5: MANOVA analysis findings regarding types of IPT and the human capital development aspect
RU (n = 428)
COMPU (n = 240)
FOCUSU (n = 504)
Aspect
Mean (SP)
Mean (SP)
Mean (SP)
Human Capital Objective (MB)
3.90 (0.56)
4.13 (0.41)
4.28 (0.47)
Curriculum (K)
3.85 (0.58)
3.95 (0.46)
4.34 (0.45)
Teaching & Learning (PP)
3.87 (0.61)
4.09 (0.51)
4.25 (0.45)
Appraisal Mechanisms (MP)
3.80 (0.58)
4.15 (0.45)
4.41 (0.49)
Learning Material (BP)
3.68 (0.54)
4.00 (0.54)
4.17 (0.51)
Teachers Resource (TP)
3.86 (0.63)
4.08 (0.46)
4.43 (0.41)
Supporting System (SS)
3.94 (0.51)
3.65 (0.63)
4.39 (0.50)
Programme Development (PG)
4.07 (0.53)
4.24 (0.44)
4.40 (0.51)
Quality of Programme (KP)
4.02 (0.67)
3.91 (0.69)
4.52 (0.41)
*: significant at p<0.05
F-value
66.98*
117.75*
62.14*
159.10*
97.48*
145.77*
172.56*
48.88*
126.31*
multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) is conducted
to show the differences in groups besides performing
univariate advanced analysis to determine the variables
that caused such differences. Moreover, the Post Hoc
analysis is also conducted to identify the differences
between groups in further detail.
All the 9 factors of human capital development
embedded in the academic programmes obtained through
factor analysis are being used as dependent variables. The
correlation between factors are tested with Bartlett
sphericity test, and obtained a statistic value of 1322,135
with 109 df, p<0.01. This finding allows the MANOVA
analysis method to be appropriate for application.
Meanwhile, there are a few criteria that can be used to
evaluate the multivariate differences across the different
groups through grouping. For this research, both the Pillai
trace dan Roy’s ger (greatest characteristic root) criteria
were used, while the Scheffe post hoc test is used to
identify the differences between the groups.
reliability Cronbach Alpha (a) value for each research
factors is also tabulated as follows:
The findings in Table 2 shows that the Cronbach
Alpha (a) values obtained for each factor exceeds 0.80.
While the Pearson coefficient correlation that exists
within all 9 factors is between 0.32 to 0.51. This finding
confirms that the multi-collinearty effect is almost nonexistent among these factors.
This research uses the stratified random sampling
method based on the categories and the location of the
universities in the process of selecting research
respondents. In the selection process, researchers used a
list of all the IPTA (public universities) as a sample
structure in Malaysia according to categories (Research
University, Comprehensive University and Focused
University) and the location (North, Center, East and
South-Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah/Sarawak
representing East Malaysia). As a conclusion, there are 3
Research Universities, 3 Comprehensive Universities and
10 Focused Universities that have been chosen as samples
in this research (Table 3).
Types of universities and the human capital
development aspects: Three types of universities are
used in the MANOVA analysis; the research university,
the comprehensive university and the focused university
while all the 9 factors in the human capital development
through academic programmes are dependent variables.
The findings of the MANOVA analysis are tabulated in
Table 5.
The research findings showed that there is an
existence of a pattern among the three groups of
universities when observing the mean score distribution.
For example, the mean score distribution for human
capital development aspects through academic
programmes revealed that research universities prioritize
the least even in moderate levels for all aspects except the
programme quality aspect, if compared to the
comprehensive and focused universities. In the aspect of
programme quality, it is discovered that research and
focused universities give high priority compared to
comprehensive universities. Unlike focused university,
research findings revealed that this type of university
prioritizes much in all aspects of human capital
development except the learning material aspect
(relatively
moderate
level). Meanwhile, for
FINDINGS
The human capital development profile in this
research is conducted based on two criteria, which are the
types of universities and the fields of specifications. The
universities in this research are divided into 3 types,
namely the research university, the comprehensive
university and the focused university. Meanwhile, the
programme specifications are divided into 5 groups; pure
and applied arts, pure and applied science, and
professional programmes. According to the
categorization, this research should apply the univariate
ANOVA conventional analysis to examine the differences
or to indentify the effects of size on each group.
Nevertheless, if this approach is applied in every item, it
will bring to the increase in Type I errors. At the level of
0.05, the tendency of the Type I errors occurrence to the
110 items is very high. Therefore, the analysis for this
research has been performed through factor analysis. This
approach is more parsimonious as it is able to decrease
the overwhelming number of items to a few coherent
factors besides having theoretical meaning. Meanwhile,
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Curr. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 3(5): 389-398, 2011
Table 6: MANOVA analysis findings regarding types of studies and the human capital development aspect
Science
Arts
------------------------------------------------------------------------Pure
Applied
Pure
Applied
Aspect
Mean (SP)
Mean(SP)
Mean (SP)
Mean (SP)
Human Capital Objective (MB)
4.19 (0.44)
4.20 (0.54)
3.99 (0.56)
4.00 (0.56)
Curriculum (K)
4.14 (0.39)
4.02 (0.58)
3.82 (0.62)
4.13 (0.51)
Teaching & Learning (PP)
4.07 (0.53)
4.06 (0.67)
3.93 (0.63)
4.14 (0.44)
Appraisal Mechanisms (MP)
4.08 (0.40)
4.27 (0.58)
3.81 (0.58)
4.15 (0.59)
Learning Material (BP)
3.97 (0.50)
3.96 (0.46)
3.69 (0.53)
4.03 (0.69)
Teacher Resources (TP)
4.22 (0.44)
4.20 (0.66)
3.85 (0.67)
4.23 (0.32)
Supporting System (SS)
4.18 (0.60)
4.01 (0.76)
3.84 (0.39)
4.26 (0.61)
Programme Development (PG)
4.20 (0.50)
4.34 (0.43)
3.95 (0.51)
4.46 (0.53)
Quality of Programme (KP)
4.26 (0.56)
4.26 (0.80)
3.92 (0.65)
4.28(0.50)
*: significant at p<0.05
Professional
Mean (SP)
4.21 (0.43)
4.36 (0.47)
4.23 (0.40)
4.44 (0.51)
4.16 (0.46)
4.28 (0.61)
4.06 (0.57)
4.26 (0.51)
4.41(0.54)
F-value
9.80*
31.24*
9.77*
42.36*
23.46*
24.43*
19.69*
37.26*
21.58*
The research findings shows that professional courses
programmes are found to give high priority to most
aspects of human capital development through academic
programmes compared to science programmes (pure or
applied) and arts programmes (pure or applied).
Meanwhile, programmes that offer pure arts courses are
found to give less priority to to human capital
development through academic programmes although it
can still be categorised as a relatively moderate level.
Besides that, research findings also revealed that applied
science and arts programmes are found to give higher
priority to aspects of human capital development
compared to pure science and arts programmes offered.
Another obvious pattern from the table above showed that
all types of programmes, either arts, science or
professional each gives high priority to the quality and
programme development policy compared to other aspects
in the human capital development policy.
Specifically for professional programmes, the human
capital development aspects that are given top priorities
are the curriculum, appraisal mechanism, teacher
resources, programme development policy and quality of
programme. Meanwhile, other aspects such as human
capital objectives, teaching and learning and supporting
system are given moderate levels of priority.
The research findings also shows that applied science
programmes give higher priority in human capital
development compared to pure science programmes. For
example, pure science programmes prioritize programme
quality only if compared to other aspects in the human
capital development that only gives moderate level of
priorities. This differs with applied science programmes
as there are three aspects of human capital development
that are given preeminence, namely, the appraisal
mechanism, programme development policy and quality
of programme. Nevertheless, both programmes, be it pure
science or applied science give less emphasis towards the
teaching and learning materials, although this is
categorized in a moderate level.
As a conclusion, the findings from the table above
revealed that applied arts programme give high priorities
compared to pure arts programmes especially in the
comprehensive universities, although all aspects of human
capital development are given priority at a moderate level,
but a few selected aspects are also given preeminence, for
example, programme development, appraisal mechanism
and human capital development objectives. Similar
patterns can be observed in research universities as
priority in a moderate level is given to development
policy and programme quality. In conclusion, research
universities are found to have less preference towards the
development of human capital through academic
programmes compared to comprehensive and focused
universities, although only at a moderate level. In this
matter, focused universities are found to have high
priority towards human capital development through
academic programmes.
Meanwhile, MANOVA analysis based on the three
groups of universities produced Pillai trace value (0.587,
F-value = 53.65, p<0.00) and Roy ger value (0.586, Fvalue = 75.81, p<0.00). These findings confirmed that
there are significant differences between the three
universities in certain aspects. Next, univariate analysis
revealed that there are significant statistical differences in
all aspects of human capital development through
academic programmes, including human capital
objectives, curriculum, teaching and learning, appraisal
mechanisms, learning materials, teacher resources,
supporting system, programme development and quality
of programme.
Post hoc Scheffe analysis findings also discovered
that most aspects of human capital development through
academic programmes for comprehensive and focused
universities showed significant differences with research
universities except in the aspect of programme quality.
Types of courses and human capital development
aspect: Five different fields of studies/specifications are
used in the MANOVA analysis; pure arts, applied arts,
pure science, applied and professional science.
Meanwhile, all 9 aspects of human capital development
aspects through academic programmes are used as
dependent variables in this analysis. The findings are
shown in Table 6.
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Curr. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 3(5): 389-398, 2011
Table 7: MANOVA analysis findings in types of IPT, fields of studies and human capital development aspect
F-value
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Aspect
University
Programme
University* Programme
Human Capital Objective (MB)
61.42*
9.88*
34.04*
Curriculum (K)
109.75*
24.32*
34.28*
Teaching & Learning (PP)
50.12*
8.98*
45.53*
Appraisal Mechanisms (MP)
172.64*
33.36*
49.13*
Learning Material (BP)
91.49*
8.44*
35.30*
Teacher Resources (TP)
127.88*
5.83*
36.79*
Supporting System (SS)
164.46*
16.96*
24.26*
Programme Development (PG)
26.29*
10.39*
57.97*
Quality of Programme (KP)1
29.75*
11.43*
50.08*
*: significant at p<0.05
aspect of human capital development. This is apparent
when applied arts gives preeminence in aspects such as
supporting system, programme development policy and
programme quality compared to pure arts programmes
that only prioritize these aspects at a moderate level.
The MANOVA analysis based on the five types of
programmes offered also produced the Pillai trace value
(0.494, F-value = 18.21, p<0.00) and Roy ger value
(0.232, F-value=29.93, p<0.00). These findings confirmed
that there are significant differences between the five
universities in all aspects of human capital development.
Next, the univariate analysis showed that there are
significant statistical differences in all the aspects of
human capital development through academic
programmes, namely, human capital objective,
curriculum, teaching and learning, appraisal mechanism,
learning materials, teachers’ resource, supporting system,
programme development and programme quality.
The post hoc Scheffe analysis results revealed that
most aspects of the human capital development through
academic programmes for the professional programmes,
pure and applied science and applied arts showed a
significant difference with Pure Arts programme.
three universities produced Pillai trace value (0.661, Fvalue= 63.05, p<0.00) and Roy ger value (0.803, F-value
=102.60, p<0.00). This finding suggested that there are
significant differences among these universities in all
aspects of human capital development.
Meanwhile, the MANOVA analysis based on the five
types of programmes offered also produce Pillai trace
value (0.636, F-value = 24.22, p<0.00) and Roy ger value
(0.307, F-value = 39.35, p<0.00). This finding suggested
that there are significant differences between the five
programmes in all aspects of human capital development.
Finally, the MANOVA analysis based on the interaction
between universities and the programmes offered
produced a Pillai trace value (1.48, F-value= 29.19,
p<0.00) and Roy ger value (0.923, F-value=118.58,
p<0.00). This finding suggested that there are significant
differences between these five universities in all aspects
of human capital development.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The economic situation that experiences changes
from product-based economy to knowledge-based
economy has deemed universities as the ultimate
organization that supplies human capital for the economic
development (Altbach, 1991; Chew and Lee, 1995;
Murad, 1971). The findings in this study showed that
public universities in Malaysia are responsive in fulfilling
the market demands specifically in preparing high quality
human capitals through their academic programmes and
trainings. This can also be seen when all of nine aspectsobjective, curriculum, teaching and learning, appraisal
mechanism, learning materials, programme quality,
supporting system and lecturers are given priority
although only at the moderate level. Therefore, this
findings ascertain that although public universities are
clustered into a few categories, yet the desire and goal of
the Ministry of Higher Education that the human capital
development will be given appropriate attention in the
tertiary level to fulfill the demands of employers (Ministry
of Higher Education, 2006) has been included in the
human capital development in respective institutions. This
is in tandem with the Kirby-Harris statement (2003) that
Types of university, programmes and aspects of
human capital development: Three types of universities
and five types of programmes have been used in the
MANOVA analysis. The description analysis findings
involving the mean score and the MANOVA analysis is
shown in Table 7
The findings from Table 7 showed that all three
universities with professional programmes as a whole
gave the highest priority in human capital development.
This is then followed by programmes as Pure Science,
Applied Science and Applied Arts. Conversely, the three
universities with pure Arts programme are found to
prioritize less in human capital development although it is
still categorized in a moderate level. Meanwhile, these
universities and the programmes they offered are found to
give high priority towards the apects of human capital
development, programme development and quality of
programme. Next, the MANOVA analysis based on these
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Curr. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 3(5): 389-398, 2011
The diversity that exists within the patterns from this
research findings disclosed that public universities’
categorization in Malaysia affects the process of human
capital development for the nation’s progression. The
different categories of universities play their respective
roles besides providing different focus in their effort of
developing human capitals with various talents and
knowledge. This condition is, as explained by the
Structural-functionalist Theory, shows the mutual
influences between each part in order to form a
community for example, the roles of deliver skills,
knowledge and the culture of a community to the younger
generation of their own culture or others as well.
In addition, this diversity also showed that public
universities in Malaysia attempts to build a reputation by
creating disposition and resources to attract and renowned
scholars who are able to contribute significantly to the
advancement in research, to produce graduates who are
capable of manage and practice their knowledge for the
sake of development in the local community, country and
international level (Ministry of Higher Education, 2006).
Nevertheless, in the aspects of priority and emphasis, they
differ according to the clusters by the Ministry of Higher
Education (2007) to ensure a production of human
capitals with diverse skills for the sake of the nation’s
development in various fields as explained by the
Confirmation Theory (Roemer, 1980). This statement is
also supported by research by Aziah (2007) that Malaysia
public universities autonomy in developing their
respective organizations still exist when performing their
development plan. In fact, optimizing innovation and
ideas, creativity, prominence, and knowledge discovery
by the community is a crucial factor in ensuring success
and harmony in a nation as desired by the Ministry of
Higher Education (2007). Therefore, the public
universities strive to transform these characteristics into
efforts of fulfilling the new global economic needs that is
established on creativity, authenticity and imagination by
scholars and technopreneurs.
Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the
great efforts shown by the Public HEIs in Malaysia in
producing outstanding human capitals through instilling
humanitarian skills in all the courses domains (study
content, mastery in fields of study, work place sensitivity
and work place experience) during the execution of
academic programmes. This significant roles and
emphasis in producing human capitals with various skills
and knowledge has created diversity in the human capital
development through academic programs among the
public universities in Malaysia.
the top-down approach taken by the government is to
ensure the existence of parallelism between the
development of higher education and its contribution to
the nation development. The findings also strengthen
Najib’s (2004) and Thong’s (1995) findings that public
universities in Malaysia still uses the utilitarian model
based on the ivory tower concept. Nevertheless, various
methods have been used to determine and identify the best
reaction to opportunities and challenges in the
environment.
Nevertheless, the research findings also provide a
strong evidence in support of the Malaysian Ministry of
Education’s human capital development policy through
academic programmes when there was a pattern of
priority was given by public universities:C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
Research universities are giving less priority towards
human capital development through their academic
programmes compared to comprehensive and
focused universities although the priorities are only
at the moderate level.
Focused universities are giving high priorities
towards human capital development through their
academic programmes.
Professional academic programmes are giving high
priority to most aspects of human capital
development compared to Science programme (Pure
or Applied) and Arts programme (Pure or Applied)
courses.
Pure Arts programme are prioritized less in the
human capital development although only at a
moderate level.
Applied Science and Applied Arts programmes give
higher priority in the aspects of human capital
development compared to Pure Science and Pure
Arts programmes.
All academic programmes whether Arts, Science or
professional give priority in the aspects of quality and
programme development policy compared to other
aspects in the human capital development.
Overall, professional programmes offered by all
universities regardless categories, are given the
highest priority in all aspects of the human capital
development., followed by Pure Science, Applied
Science and Applied Arts programmes.
On the other hand, all universities regardless
categories with Pure Arts programmes are given less
priority in the human capital development although
it rated as moderate level.
All universities and the academic programmes are
giving high priority on the aspects of human capital
development, programme development policy and
programme quality in their academic programmes
offered.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The study reported in this article was funded by
Universiti Sains Malaysia research grant entitled "The
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Curr. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 3(5): 389-398, 2011
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